MARITIME NEWSA unique service from KVH Media Group Friday, March 14, 2014

International maritime news for seafarers

SAFETY STUDY SECURITY ENVIRONMENT TRADE

GALLEY SHIPPING DATA

N Korea denies ties with suspected tankerNorth Korea has denied any connection with a tanker suspected of illegally carrying a cargo of oil from a Libyan port currently under the control of rebel forces. At the time of the incident, the tanker was flying the North Korean flag. This led to the suspicion that North Korea was trying to obtain Libyan oil with the help of rebel forces.

Clarifying its stand, Deputy Director General of North Korean Maritime Administration Jon Ki Chol said that although his country had flagged the tanker, it cancelled the tanker's registration after being notified of the incident.

According to him, a company - based in Egypt - presently operates the tanker.

Jon provided a document, saying that it was the official deletion of the tanker from the Maritime Administration's registry. He also showed email correspondence that was from IHS Maritime in London, a company that manages shipping information, which purportedly acknowledged the deletion of a vessel from the North Korean registry.

The ship was loaded with the oil at Al-Sidra, one of Libya's biggest ports. Government forces, including Navy vessels, were deployed to al-Sidra port to stop it and the country's prosecutor general issued an arrest warrant for the captain and crew, while ordering the tanker be confiscated. On Wednesday, Libya's Culture Minister al-Habib al-Ameen said that the tanker had managed to escape Libyan waters.

The last time North Korea was in the news for a shipping incident was July last year, when one of its ships was stopped in Panama for transporting weaponry hidden under bags of sugar. (AP)

SAFETY STUDYEARLY MORNING COLLISIONA series of assumptions by watchkeepers aboard a cargo ship and a fishing vessel as to how each other's vessel would behave in close proximity led to a collision.

SUMMARYA cargo vessel, loaded with 1,209 tons of steel wire rods, approached the coast a few hours after midnight. The one-man bridge watches were changed to a two-man shift as necessary, such as when passing through narrow channels.

An officer of the cargo vessel took over the bridge watch at 0330 with a message that there were a lot of fishing vessels in the area except in the direction of the bow. He set course by autopilot at a speed of nine knots.

At around 0420, the duty officer sighted a lighted fishing boat visually and by radar at six nautical miles off his starboard bow.

At 0440, with the fishing boat appearing on radar and visually at three miles still off his starboard bow, the cargo ship watch officer switched the radar range from six miles to three miles scale.

Seeing that the fishing boat turned its fish-luring lights off and a green light on, he assumed that the fishing vessel had started to navigate.

As the fishing vessel started to turn round showing a green light, the officer thought that both vessels would pass by each otherstarboard-to-starboard.

As the squid boat began to show a red light instead of the green light and its range on radar much closer at around 0.23 nautical miles, the officer aboard the cargo ship switched to manual steering, put the helm hard to starboard and shifted the engine clutch in neutral. The cargo ship and the fishing boat collided at 0458.

PROBABLE CAUSESFacts from the investigation indicate that the reason for the watch officer aboard the cargo ship having not kept a lookout for the fishing boat was that he believed both vessels would pass each other starboard-to-starboard, based on seeing the starboard side light of the squid boat.

It was also determined that the reason for the skipper of the fishing vessel not immediately manoeuvering after hauling its catch was that he believed there was still enough time before his boat got too close to the cargo ship.

S Korea set to help developing nations with marine technologySouth Korea has decided to provide technological assistance to the developing countries in South-east Asia. In Sejong, a senior official of the country's Oceans and Fisheries Ministry said the proposed move is aimed at helping prevent frequent maritime accidents in the region.

The official made the announced ahead of month-long training in marine research in which a group of 16 government officials from Cambodia, East Timor, Vietnam and the Philippines would take part. They will receive training in marine research, such as measuring the depth of water and drawing an ocean map.

The ministry official also said that the training would basically a part of South Korea's support for developing countries. According to him, the ninth annual training programme in 2014 will include lectures on earthquake-induced tsunamis, rip currents and ways to minimise damages from such catastrophic events.

Meanwhile, the ministry said in a statement that the program would also provide an opportunity for South Korea to promote international use of the name 'East Sea' for the body of water between South Korea and Japan. Japan prefers to call it "Sea of Japan".

Nordic Maritime wins seismic contract off Indian coastSingapore-headquartered Nordic Maritime has won a contract worth USD 23.5 million for providing 3D marine seismic data acquisition and processing services off the coast of Andhra Pradesh in India.

A senior Nordic Maritime official said on Thursday that they will jointly collect the data with Sovcomflot through its seismic survey vessel. He also said that the vessel will survey around 1,000sqkm of ocean bed and will also acquire gravity and magnetic data near Nizamapatnam Bay.

The eight-streamer Ulstein X bow design seismic survey vessel is currently on a five-year bareboat charter from Polarcus to Sovcomflot. To support the 3D data acquisition programme, it will receive help from a supply ship and 10 Indian chase vessels.

Meanwhile, Nordic Maritime said in a statement that it would begin implementing the project on March 15 and the project would last three months.

Commenting on the issue, Nordic Maritime CEO Kjell Gauksheim said: "This award is naturally exciting for Nordic and our partners. We are pleased to be entrusted with it and we will perform as always to our established high standards. We believe there are more opportunities like this in the region and we are open to more contracts of this sort in future."

SECURITYN Zealand gearing up for Cyclone LusiNew Zealand has started preparation for a possible flooding and power blackouts as Tropical Cyclone 'Lusi' approaches the Oceania country.

The Civil Defence Ministry and Emergency Management warned that Lusi is expected to hit New Zealand over the weekend and that the storm could trigger large coastal waves, especially in the north of the North Island and in Canterbury in the South Island.

The government's Meteorological Department predicted that the storm was expected to hit North Island at around midday on Saturday and then move southwards late on Sunday or early Monday.

Radioactive spill scare at Ceres container terminalEmergency services were put on high alert on Thursday night after a container carrying nuclear material started leaking onboard a ship docked at Halifax's Ceres terminal.

Bayne Street terminal authorities noticed the leak at 9:45pm (local time) and immediately called in emergency officials.

Halifax Fire and Emergency Service Division Commander Corey Beals said that a container with nuclear material fell on the ship's deck while being loaded. At the time of the incident, no leaks of radioactive material were noticed.

According to informed sources, this is not the first such incident in Halifax. A similar incident had taken place at Halterm in Halifax's south end in July 1999.

ENVIRONMENTUnmanned robots to collect climate data from ocean floorUnder the 'Challenger Glider Mission' project, the US is all set to deploy 16 unmanned underwater robots, called "gliders", for exploring oceans by collecting undersea data. Currently, students and faculty members of Rutgers University in New Jersey are conducting researches on climate data.

Commenting on the issue on Thursday, Professor of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers and co-leader of the project Scott Glenn said they had started working on it after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked them to modify one of their gliders so that it could travel across the Atlantic. According to Glenn, NOAA also wanted the Rutgers team to "revisit the historic track of the HMS Challenger". HMS Challenger was the first scientific mission and it had explored the deep-sea floor nearly 150 years ago.

Glenn believes that successful implementation of the project will help them learn more about the ocean's climate, its temperature and structure, thus, predicting the formation of storms and hurricanes in a better way. According to him, researchers can also compare the data with other existing models in the future for a better understanding about the ocean climate. "When you look at a specific part of the ocean, sometimes the models agree and sometimes they don't, and we don't always know why," he stressed.

Glenn told reporters that gliders operate autonomously without any propeller. They can also change their buoyancy by pulling in water just like a submarine and easily "fly" down to the ocean floor for gathering data and push the water out to come back up to the surface.

Glenn, meanwhile, praised students involved in the project, saying: "We have real research that we are doing on validating how good our ocean models are."

TRADEChinese, British groups to bolster shipping services co-operationThe Chinese and British shipping industries recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in order to bolster their mutual co-operation.

After signing the MoU, Lord Mayor of London Fiona Woolf said that the memorandum would help the shipping industries of the two countries take the co-operation to a higher level. Aapart from Woolf, Vice President of the Investment Committee at China Merchants Group Yu Liming, Chairman of Maritime London Jeffrey Evans and Chief Executive of Maritime London Doug Barrow also signed the MoU.

Woolf was also of the opinion that the signing of the MoU was very crucial not only for the UK and China, but also for the global shipping industry. She stressed that as per the objectives mentioned in the MOU, both Maritime London and UK-basedshipping companies could further expand their activities in China and the Chinese shipping industry would benefit from the UK's global expertise.

China Merchants Group is basically a government-owned enterprise that has a strong presence in the shipping sector, while Maritime London represents Britain-based businesses in maritime services.

CO2 monitoring burdensome for small shipsThe European Community Shipowners' Association (ECSA) has opposed the European Parliament's (EP) proposal for 'CO2 emissions monitoring system', saying that it would be burdensome for operators of small ships.

In June 2013, the European Commission had announced that the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) rules for CO2 emissions would be applied only to ships above 5,000 gross tonnes (GT). However, the EP adopted a draft report in January and extended the rules to cover ships of 400GT or more.

ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven strongly opposed the EP's move and said that the 400GT limit and the inclusion of small emitters would put unnecessary burden on operators of small ships, as these ships contributed a very small fraction of the total CO2 emissions. In February, the International Chamber of Shipping's Board of Directors urged the EU to defer a deal on the monitoring plan, until IMO's finalisation of global rules.

GALLEYChiquita banana honey pecan muffinsIngredients: 3 Chiquita bananas (very ripe, peel should have brown flecks), 3/4 cup of honey, 2 eggs (beaten), 1/3 cup of butter (melted), 1/3 cup of low-fat buttermilk, 1/2tsp of vanilla, 1-3/4 cup of flour, 1/2tsp of baking soda, 1tsp of baking powder, ½ cup of pecans (chopped). Method: Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with paper or foil cups. Mash bananas in a medium bowl. Stir in honey, eggs, butter, buttermilk and vanilla. Now, combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a large bowl. Pour the banana and honey mixture into the dry ingredients and stir just to combine. The batter should be lumpy. Stir in pecans. Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Bake it at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 18 minutes. When tops will become golden brown, muffins are done. Insert a toothpick in one of the centre and muffins will come out clean. Use an ice cream scooper for an easy way to fill muffin cups. Lightly coat the inside of a measuring cup with vegetable oil spray before measuring the honey to make it easier to remove the honey from the cup. Garnish each muffin with a half pecan or additional chopped pecans and serve.

Tropical spinach salad with Chiquita bananasIngredients: 1 splash of ice water, ½ small Red onion (sliced thin), 1 cup of fresh Express Spinach, 1 cup of Chiquita Pineapple (diced), 2 Chiquita Bananas (ripe with yellow peels/sliced in diagonal slices), ¼ cup of low fat Poppy seed. For dressing: 1tsp of sesame oil, 3tbsp of sweet red chilli sauce, 2tbsp of rice wine vinegar, 1 dash soya sauce. Method: Stir together the oil and sweet red chilli sauce. Whisk in the vinegar and soya sauce and set aside. Place the ice water in a salad spinner fitted with an inner basket and add the sliced red onions and baby spinach and chill for 10 minutes. Drain the ice water and use the salad spinner to spin the baby spinach and onions dry. Place in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes to chill. Then arrange

baby spinach and onions on a serving platter or individual salad plates. Arrange banana slices and pineapple decoratively on top of the spinach. Drizzle with poppy seed dressing or sweet red chilli vinaigrette and serve.

SHIPPING DATABALTIC EXCHANGE

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